Labor is pressing ahead with plans to launch its very own Crikey, called the Labor Herald (see our story today). Labor Herald? Apparently, the names Toilers Clarion and Proletarian Blunderbuss were registered to someone else, most likely Glenn Druery.

Early subscribers, who are called “insiders” — good name, we must use that, oh wait — are promised many things, including priority access to announcements by Bill Shorten. Should these be done in the manner of KevinRudd2000 (“Bill lie down after big factry meet in Adelaide, he watch repeats of Everybody Love Raymond, have a little Bill time”), we will be at the phone with our Diners Club card. We would suggest a gig guide, but a simple listing of who’s appearing at which tribunal may suffice.

We wish the new venture well and suggest that its greatest value will be in pushing Labor to do some clear thinking about where to go for a party formerly based on a large and low-income working class, and guaranteed the support of a liberal section of the middle class, in an era when the former now has a unionisation rate of 20% and the latter are represented by the Greens.

Of course, the temptation for a publication billed as the “Labor insider” would be to turn scorn on its friendly critics, become a plaything of factions, and make elite movers and shakers feel good about their working-class roots, while avoiding the tough questions. But hey, that would never happen.

We also advise it to leave out any articles by Troy Bramston. Then, even if it contained nothing else and was simply a blank email, it would still be a good newsletter, and well worth subscribing to. Onwards!